In order to build a Firepit you must learn the Controlled Burn tech at a University of Body. In order to start a fire you must learn the Firebuilding skill from a School of Leadership. This skill can be increased by lighting fires. Higher levels in the skill seem to lower the ignition failure rate. (source: Neouni)
Grilling food
- Add 200 Wood.
- Add 1 Tinder.
- Add all ingredients to be grilled/burned before starting the fire. Each type of food item to be grilled also requires a Sharpened Stick.
- Make sure you have a Flint in your inventory.
- If you intend to stoke the fire (see below), make sure you have one or more Sharpened Sticks or Iron Poker in your inventory.
Things that can be added:
| Input | Output | Ratio (in:out) | Comments |
| Wood | 200:0 | start up cost | |
| Tinder | 1:0 | start up cost | |
| nothing | Charcoal | Variable | see 1 |
| Fish (any) 2 | Grilled Fish | 1:1 | +2 end |
| Cabbage | Grilled Cabbage | 1:1 | +2 spe |
| Carrots | Grilled Carrots | 1:1 | +2 per |
| Cucumbers | Grilled Cucumbers | 1:1 | +2 str |
| Eggplant | Grilled Eggplant | 1:1 | +2 dex |
| Onions | Grilled Onions | 1:1 | +2 end |
| Garlic | Grilled Garlic | 1:1 | +2 foc |
| Peppers | Grilled Peppers | 1:1 | +1 str, +1 dex |
| Watermelons | Grilled Watermelons | 1:1 | +2 con |
2) Up to 20 of each type of fish may be used. Each type requires its own Sharpened Stick. They all turn into the same kind of Grilled Fish.
You have no option to add anything AFTER the fire is started. Once its burning, thats it, --Akela
Combining serveral things like vegetables and ash producing things seems to lower ash production - Neouni
I ran a simple test of this. Two fires, 20 stokes each. Both had 100 limestone, 100 papy, 100 flax, and 100 leeks. One also had 20 onions, 20 cabbage, and 20 carrots. Ash, lime, and CC results were identical. --Quarrel
- When everything is in, light the tinder with the flint (flint is not consumed). This has a chance of failing and, in some cases, consuming the tinder.
Stoking for ash and lime
"Pyromania for Fun and Profit" or, "The Proper Care and Feeding of Bonfires" (Quizzical's guide to bonfires)
Theory
Before starting the fire, you must add the materials which you intend to cook into ash and lime. Leeks, dried flax, and dried papyrus will all cook into ash. Limestone will cook into lime. Up to 100 of each ingredient can be added. Outputs stack, so if you make one fire with leeks, one with dried flax, one with dried papyrus, and one with limestone, and all burn just as long, your total output of ash and lime will be the same as if you had done all four items in a single fire, and it burned for the same amount of time.
You should also bring an ample supply of sharpened sticks, so that you don't run out while stoking the fire. I recommend sticking the firepit window.
While you can add less than the maximum of some ingredients, a firepit must have 200 wood and one tinder. If the wood and tinder are both in the firepit, you will be given an option to light the fire. This requires that you have flint in your inventory.
There are three possible outcomes when you attempt to light a fire. First, nothing may happen. Second, you may burn up the tinder without successfully starting the fire. In that case, you'll have to add tinder before you can again attempt to light the fire. Finally, the fire may properly start up.
In any of these three outcomes, there is also a chance to gain a firebuilding level. A higher firebuilding level increases your chance of successfully starting a fire. The maximum firebuilding level is 7, at which attempts at building a fire invariably succeed if you have the appropriate materials.
While the fire is going, most of the time, you will have the option to stoke it with a sharpened stick, if you have any sharpened sticks in inventory. Stoking a fire with a sharpened stick has perhaps a 1 in 10 chance of burning up the stick. This is a rough approximation, and not believed to vary with firebuilding level.
There are five phases of a burning fire. The first is the initial phase, in which the flames are a combination of orange, yellow, and white. The only effect of stoking a fire here is a chance to put the fire out prematurely. If a fire is put out in the initial phase, no materials are lost. Even the wood and tinder remain, as if the fire had never been lit, though you may still lose sharpened sticks. If you accidentally start a fire when you didn't mean to, several quick stokes to put out the fire can prevent loss of materials.
The next phase is the stoke phase. The stoke phase is signified by the flames turning mostly white, with only a little bit of yellow, and no orange at all. If you're not certain whether your fire has just entered the stoke phase, it hasn't. Entering the stoke phase is an unmistakable shift in flame appearance, to mostly white and absolutely no orange, and remaining that way for several seconds.
The stoke phase lasts about 10 seconds, and if you do not stoke the fire in this phase, it will be followed by the smoldering out phase. If you stoke a fire in the stoke phase, the option to stoke it again will be removed, as a fire can only be stoked once in the stoke phase. That makes it so that if you're trying to stoke a fire in the stoke phase, it's immediately clear when you've done it properly.
If you successfully stoke a fire in the stoke phase, it is followed by the post-stoke phase, which also lasts about 10 seconds. The post-stoke phase has the fire mostly white and yellow, with a little bit of orange fading in and out. A fire can be stoked in the post-stoke phase, and the effect of the stoking is to have a small chance to put the fire out prematurely, in which case your materials do get burned up, and the ash, lime, and charcoal yields will be substantially lower than if the fire had been allowed to smolder out.
It may look like you're getting several stoke phases in a short period of time, but you're not. After you successfully stoke a fire in the stoke phase, ignore the disappearance of all orange for the next 20 seconds or so. I like to say something in Main, as the message takes 15 seconds to disappear, and then waiting a few seconds past that is enough to ensure that the post-stoke phase is over.
The next phase is the no-stoke phase, which is marked by a continual presence of orange flames. It is functionally identical to the post-stoke phase, in that the effect of stoking is to have a chance to put a fire out. It is visually distinguished from the post-stoke phase in that there is a continual presence of orange flames, along with the white and yellow. In the no-stoke phase, it is important to watch carefully for when the stoke phase is coming, as that is what follows the no-stoke phase. The length of the no-stoke phase varies considerably, and can be anywhere from about 10 to 40 seconds.
The final phase is the smoldering out phase. This lasts five minutes after a stoke phase passes in which the fire is not stoked. A firepit cannot be stoked in the smoldering out phase. All that can be done is to wait five minutes for the fire to die, at which time the ash, lime, and charcoal can be removed.
Charcoal, lime, and ash yields are not affected by the number of stokes directly, so stoking outside of the designated stoke time doesn't increase your yield, even if you're lucky enough not to put the fire out that way. Yield is markedly reduced if the fire is put out prematurely by an ill-timed stoke.
Short summary
| Phase | Flame colour | Stoking | No stoking |
| Initial phase | orange, yellow, white | Put fire out prematuraly, no materials lost | Next Phase: Stoke phase |
| Stoke phase | mostly white, little bit of yellow, no orange | Next Phase: Post stoke Phase | Next Phase: Smoldering out phasee |
| Post stoke phase | mostly white and yellow, little bit of orange | Small chance to put the fire out prematuraly -> Materials get burned up, ash, lime and charcoal yields substantially lower | Next Phase: No stoke phase |
| No stoke phase | continual presence of orange flames | Small chance to put the fire out prematuraly -> Materials get burned up, ash, lime and charcoal yields substantially lower | Next Phase: Stoke phase |
| Smoldering out phase | - | Fire stops |
Pictures
| No-Stoke Phase | Stoke-Phase: |
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Comments
While I have tracked data in number of successful stoke phases, it is likely that the yields are instead based on time elapsed since the fire was lit. This would explain the slight variance in yields with the same number of successful stokes, though fire duration in a fire which is not put out prematurely is strongly correlated with the number of successful stokes. This would also explain why putting out a fire prematurely drops the yield.
My experience backs up the theory that it is the time duration of the fire, rather than the number of stokes, that determines the output. Furthermore, it doesn't seem to matter whether the fire is allowed to smoulder out naturally, or is "stoked to death". When interpreting that statement, keep in mind that the 5 teppyminute smouldering out phase does count toward production time. Verify this with the following experiment:
Start two firepits at the same time, with the same input materials. Let them run for any duration. Let one smoulder out while continuing to tend the second. As soon as the first fire smoulders out completely (when you get the message in Main), stoke the other to death. The two fires should have produced identical yield.
-Numaris
It is likely that firepits could operate something along the lines of glazier's benches: dreadfully boring if only one, but more interesting with several at once. The penalty for missing a stoke in a firepit is much greater than for mistiming a charcoal addition in a glazier's bench, though.
You can also readily get your firebuilding level to 7 if you care to. Get a bunch of tinder and sharpened sticks, put the 200 wood in the fire, start it, and immediately put it out by stoking it with sharpened sticks in the initial phase. Each attempt at starting a fire gives you a chance of increasing your firebuilding level, and you can get many such attempts in a short period time, at a cost of only a few tinder and quite a few sharpened sticks. [added by funbot: I tried this as a new tale 3'er and despite mad stoking in first stage lost everything]
It doesn’t make much sense to run and stoke a fire without using the maximum amount of limestone, unless ash has some major non-glass uses that were absent in the past. If you use the maximum amount of limestone, leeks, flax, and papyrus, you'll get more than 2 ash per lime. Assuming that ash cooks into potash at a 1:1 ratio as in the past, this would give you more potash than you could use for your amount of lime, even if you never make any soda glass.
You get more ash, lime, and charcoal from longer stoking for all the materials that produce them. However, these all have diminishing returns to scale, so for example, the first ten proper stokes of a bonfire will do a lot more for you than the 41st though 50th stokes. Additional stoking benefits ash from papyrus far more than any of the other materials. The other materials seem to get about the same percentage benefit, though with leeks, the numbers are small enough that it's hard to tell.
Right now, leeks, flax, and papyrus are all reasonably comparable in efficiency in making ash without stoking, as measured in ash per amount of work to produce the materials. There will be big improvements in limestone efficiency with endurance food, and possibly better hammers and chisels. There will also be big improvements in flax efficiency from better flax strains. There will only be small improvements in leeks from pyramids, and no papyrus improvements are expected at all.
With stoking not becoming easier, it becomes less valuable as the materials needed become easier. As such, right now, it makes sense to use leeks, dried papyrus, and limestone, and stoke firepits for quite a while. Once better technologies come out, it will probably make more sense to use leeks, dried flax, and limestone, and stoke for a while, but not as long. If this doesn't produce enough ash without papyrus, then some dried papyrus could occasionally be added to produce sufficient ash.
In the interest of getting a more complete firebuilding guide out quickly, I don't have the data to properly back up all the claims made above. I haven't tried putting the fire out prematurely very many times other than in the initial phase where it does not lead to loss of materials; I expect that this will be done enough times accidentally that if it is productive, that will be discovered soon enough. I haven't tried adding fewer than 100 of the various ingredients at all. I expect that the claims are sharp enough that, if wrong, should be easily proven to be wrong.
Formulas
These formulas are only rough approximations. Please don't quote them and claim that Quizzical said that the formula was exactly such and such. They fit my data reasonably well, and probably won't be very far off if you stoke for less than an hour, but are certainly not the exact formulas.
If n is the number of proper stokes of a fire, which is allowed to smolder out rather than being ended prematurely, and you use the maximum allowed of whatever materials you use, then your yields should be about:
Wood: 5.8 \sqrt{20+n} charcoal
Limestone: 3.1 \sqrt{20+n} lime
Dried flax: 2.6 \sqrt{20+n} ash
Leeks: \sqrt{20+n} ash
Dried papyrus: 2.8 (15+n)^{2/3} ash
I have done 0-13 proper stokes so far, using maximum limestone+leeks+dried flax. My data fits to the following much better : --Sumtet
Charcoal: 6.60 (13.2+n)^0.5
Ash: 4.15 (13.2+n)^0.5
Lime: 3.55 (13.2+n)^0.5
Data used in above guide
In all cases, the maximum of the listed ingredients were added. My routine in stoking firepits is to state the number of stokes in main at each proper stoke, and use the timestamp on previous statements and the time it takes for the message to disappear to gauge how long to wait before the next stoke, so I'm confident that the number of proper stokes listed is exactly correct. The amounts of charcoal, lime, and ash which result are exact, as well. The time each fire took was not recorded, either in Teppy-time or real time, though this is strongly correlated with the number of proper stokes. The 53 stoke fire was ended when a stoke was missed due to a two minute lag spike.
Some early haphazard results in which I was learning how to stoke are excluded. I had firebuilding skill 7 for all of the results in which there was stoking done.
Maximum of all materials added:
| Stoke | Charcoal | Ash | Lime |
| 0 | 25 | 31 | 13 |
| 5 | 28 | 39 | 15 |
| 10 | 32 | 44 | 17 |
| 15 | 34 | 49 | 19 |
| 20 | 38 | 55 | 20 |
| 30 | 41 | 61 | 22 |
| 40* | 45 | 70 | 24 |
| 53 | 49 | 77 | 26 |
No stoking, only ash materials added:
| Materials | Charcoal | Ash |
| Leeks | 25 | 4 |
| Flax | 25 | 11 |
| Papyrus | 24 | 16 |
| All | 24 | 31 |
40 proper stokes, limestone added in addition to ash materials:
| Materials | Charcoal | Ash | Lime |
| Leeks | 44 | 8 | 24 |
| Flax | 44 | 20 | 24 |
| Papyrus | 44 | 40 | 24 |
| All* | 45 | 70 | 24 |
- these two data points are actually the same measurement, used in two different tables
Other raw data
T3 Live
| Input | Number of Cycles | Result |
| 100 dried flax | 58 | 48 cc, 22 ash |
| 100 dried papyrus | 58 | 48 cc, 46 ash |
| 100 leeks | 49 | 38 cc, 21 ash |
| 100 limestone | 25 | 38 cc, 21 lime |
| 100 Limestone | 71 (1 hour) | 54 cc, 29 Lime |
| 95 Limestone | 0 | 24 cc, 11 Lime |
| 96 Limestone | 0 | 24 cc, 13 Lime |
Made some tests for ASH --> 100 limestone 100 leeks stoked 6 times. Result 5 ash, 30cc, 16 lime
100 limestone 100 dried flax under exact same conditions. Result 13 ash, 30cc, 16 lime -Ade
T3 Beta
| Input | Number of Cycles | Time | Description of Stokes per cycle | Clean or premature ending | Result |
| 10 limestone | 2 | 1 stoke each cycle after the first peak of the yellow phase | clean ending | 27 cc | |
| 100 limestone | 0 | don't stoke at all | clean ending | 13 lime, 24-25 cc | |
| 10 limestone | 20 | 1 stoke each cycle after the first peak of the yellow phase | clean ending | 37 cc |
| 100 limestone | -- | stoke for 25 minutes | clean ending | 23 lime, 43 cc | |
| 100 limestone | 45+ | 44 teppy min | 1 stoke between c and d | clean ending | 27 lime, 50cc |
| 100 limestone | 56+ | stoke for 1 hour, burned for 59 teppy min | 1 stoke each cycle after the first peek of the yellow phase | clean ending | 29 lime, 53cc |
| 100 limestone | 4 | 8 Teppy min | 1 stoke between c and d | clean ending | 15 lime, 27 cc |
| 100 limestone | 4 | 8 Teppy min | 1 stoke between c and d, and 2 stokes between f and g | clean ending | 15 lime, 28 cc |
| 100 limestone | 4 | 8 Teppy min | 1 stoke at the end of the orange phase | clean ending | 15 lime, 28 cc |
| 100 limestone | 14 | 16 Teppy min | 1 stoke between c and d | clean ending | 18 lime, ? cc |
| 80 limestone | 0 | don't stoke at all | clean ending | 11 lime, 24 cc | |
| 49 limestone | 7? | 7 stokes when it turned yellow | let it die after the 7th | 8 lime, 30 cc |
With this data, for cc at least, it seems faster to just gather 200 wood, burn multiple fires and never stoke it rather than stoking for an hour just to double cc output. Any clue if limestone is even efficient for stoking? - Delerium
It's definitely worth it to stoke for limestone. It takes nearly an hour to gather 100 limestone and you can nearly double the efficiency by stoking for half an hour. It's also fairly easy to run several fires at once, providing even greater levels of efficiency. - Kanvil
A summary of the above guide could be "Start a fire, wait until it turns white, then poke. Wait for it to get red. Wait for it to turn white, then poke. Repeat." I also want to endorse the "err on the side of not-stoking" mentioned below. - Taemon
Other Tips
Forgive me if this isn't placed right. I am new to Tale 3 and these firepits have been driving me crazy - I'm used to the old bonfires. I read this guide several times and still had a hard time with stoking. So I started playing and figured out some things that work for me. I thought I'd share in case others were having issues as well.
The biggest problem I had was figuring out when to stoke. I get the whole "stoke when it's yellow", but I find very few times when there is no orange. Plus I never seem to notice an increase or decrease in flame size as is mentioned above. I decided to try the double F8 view to see if it would help me notice the changes and (thank goodness!) it does.
When you are looking from the double F8 view your fires look like asterisks, or many pointed stars. The colors are pretty much the same, however you always have a standard background for them. I.e. the bottom of the firepit as opposed to a normal view where your background may be grass or sand or a wall, etc. I find this helps to see when the fire changes to yellow/white from orange/yellow/white. Also, you will find that the arms of the star get much thinner when it is time to stoke. If you have a hard time with the colors, the shape change should help.
Here is an example picture. The left fire needs to be stoked, the right fire does not.
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One problem I find (from either view) is that sometimes the whole fire seems to puff up and display all 3 colors at once. This only happens once every 5-6 cycles, and always confuses me. Generally if it is near the time for that fire to be stoked, I stoke. If it is not, I don't. So far I have never pre-maturely ended a fire this way.
Picture:
Finally, another thing I found helped was using my ears. Mind you, firepits do not have normal even tics and you cannot manage a fire on sound alone. However there are some clues that can help you out. First, listen to your fire for a bit....you will notice there is a loud pop about every 5 seconds. These pops are of slightly different tones and repeat 4 times...conveniently 20 seconds. The guides above mention that you should ignore the colors for 20 seconds after stoking. Listening to these pops can help with that. Consider each 5 second period between pops a tic. If you stoke a fire in tic 1, you know that you will need to ignore the colors for at least the next 3 tics, or until tic 1 comes around again. The colors can change at any point in a cycle so it can still be confusing, but generally I find that a fire rarely wants to be stoked within 5 seconds of the last 4 tic cycle. So you can count a full 4 tics after the last stoking, and then you should see the orange flames and watch for them to become yellow again.
A last note about timing - as stated above, fires don't follow any set pattern. However when you are running 2 at once you can see some similarities. They generally will want to be stoked in 5 seconds increments of each other and will follow the same timing for 1-3 cycles. For example, fire 1 wants to be stoked, then fire 2 comes up 10 seconds later. The same repeats. Then fire 1 may decide to follow 15 seconds after fire 2, and repeat again. As I said, you can't count on this....but it does give me confidence to know I am stoking in the right place if a time period repeats itself.
None of this is scientific, just observations of someone highly perplexed by firepits. I hope it helps. :) - rubenette
Newbye's addition
This is all really very simple. As the initial guide said the stock phase comes every minute or so (real minute) and at that time you need to stoke. But as the notes author mentioned the guide is a bit confusing. So, the whole process goes something like this- Start the fire
- Wait for the flames to go all white for a second (they don't stay all white, they sort of just go all white a few times, that is the stoking phase)
- Stoke the flame and check if the stoke menu option disappeared. If it did you stoked at the right time, if it did not you didn't
- Wait for the stoke phase to finish (the flames will go all orange when it does, don't stoke while in the same stoke phase)
- Wait for the next stoke phase and repeat
- I'm relieved that Newbye has stated what was obvious to me from about the 2nd line of this guide... stoke bonfires for 20, 40, 60! minutes for marginal returns? This addition to T3 can be ignored by everyone but those who like to stare at the screen and poke it now and then.
- I don't have data to support this yet, but anecdotally, if you're in doubt as to whether the fire is truly in a stoke phase or not, error on the side of *not stoking*. The potential loss of materials from prematurely snuffing a fire out is likely much higher than the potential risk of the fire smoldering out earlier than you wanted. -Fugue
